Increase awareness of handwashing
The Brand Building Director of Unilever Ghana Limited, Mr Clarence Nartey, says Ghana should increase the awareness of handwashing with soap and clean water among children in the country.
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That, he said, was to prevent children from contracting diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea which could lead to their untimely death.
“Each year, more than 100 million children across the world will celebrate their fifth birthday.
Sadly, diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea mean more than 700,000 children won’t reach this fifth birthday celebration.
Awareness
“We need to do more to increase awareness and get more people across the world to practice handwashing with antibacterial soap and clean water,” Mr Nartey said at this year’s Global Handwashing Day held at the Christ The King School in Accra.
The day, which was held yesterday, on the theme: Raise a Hand for Hygiene,” was attended by schoolchildren from the Flagstaff House Basic School and the Christ The King School.
Mr Nartey said since Lifebuoy co-founded Global Handwashing Day eight years ago, the number of children dying from diarrhoea-related diseases had halved globally, adding “in Ghana we are proud to say we have also reached more than three million and saved lots of lives with this message.”
Running water
The Director of the School Health Education Programme of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs Kate Opoku, underscored the need for children to wash their hands regularly every day with soap under running water.
He charged the students to send the message to their friends to ensure that they did not fall victim to diseases.